The New Year's New Life
by Song Of Hope
Summary: For Swift's contest. It was very late, and I explain the reason inside. Lex has nowhere to go on New year's Eve. It's a little less than half an hour before midnight, and who should find her but Tsubasa? What happens when she runs in with Hikaru, who Lex had once nearly killed as Dengen? Read to find out!


**Song Of Hope: I know this is late, but I was moving! Then I started school and got involved with a dojo and this thing called GSA and am in band and choir again, plus I just found out that I have to do the Baby Project all over again, AND I AM SO SORRY! R&R**

A ravenette walked down a street. She had big, chocolate brown eyes that one could mistake for innocent if it weren't for the look that said she had already seen too much. Her baggy red shirt and baggy black pants showed she wanted to hide, but her mismatching gloves, one black finger-less glove on her right hand and a red finger-less glove on her left made her stick out a bit, and the slight bulge underneath the bottom of her shirt showed that she was trying to hide a Bladers Belt. No to mention, the fact that there was a light snow outside and she was in a t-shirt made her stick out a lot among those who are wearing coats. She looked at her own watch, showing that it was 11:34 PM. She sighed, her frozen breath exiting her mouth in a delicate puff of fog.

"Looks like a bleak New Year."

"Lex? Is that you? Lex!" She ignored the very recognizable deep voice. She didn't want to be around him. Her heart fluttered around him, just at his voice, and she didn't understand it. She doesn't like anything she doesn't understand, so she tries to avoid the owner of that voice. Still, he called after her, having had recognized her and not relenting. "LEX!" She didn't give in or turn to the voice, but she could hear him speeding up, his footsteps getting louder and faster. Soon, she felt something very warm on her shoulders. She felt a few knuckles at first, but then felt something heavy and made of fabric.

_"A coat? Did he just give me his coat?"_ She grabbed at the edges of the brown trench-coat, bringing them closer.

"Are you insane? Why are you walking around like that? You're gonna freeze to death." She rolled her eyes.

"It would've taken me 4 hours, 58 minutes, and 27 seconds to die of hypothermia, in which I could've found shelter. Now, I'll have approximately another 7 hours, 9 minutes, and 15 seconds, making it 12 hours, 7 minutes, and 42 seconds. Well, I can definitely find shelter in that time. Thank you for extending that time Tsubasa, but the coat is unnecessary." He swerved around to the front of her, making her face his honey eyes. She could see her was wearing, rather than his midriff shirt, a long sleeved brown shirt, with multiple white grocery bags on his arm. But that really didn't matter. What mattered to her was getting rid of this distraction.

"What's up? It's New Year's Eve. Why aren't you with family?" She looked down and the ground, at their feet.

"I abandoned my family a long time ago. I don't even know where they are, and they wouldn't want to see me anyway." She felt surprised. She never tells anyone about her family, nor what she feels about them. She looked up and could see his surprise as well, but he didn't show it as much.

"Well, what about your dog, Scout?" She felt a tear fall down.

"Scout was taken by a gang. They wanted to throw a party in my factory because it's so warm since it's like a green house with all those windows, so they threw me out, but kept Scout and threatened to hurt her if I came back." He gave her a disbelieving look.

"You? Lex? A master martial artist, second only to Hope? You were beaten by a normal gang?" She glared at him.

"They had guns, and they were going to either kill me or Scout. I don't know how to disarm someone, so I couldn't do anything. They're going to release her at 6 AM, so I've just gotta find shelter until then. Then their party will be over, and I can get my monster back." He looked confused.

"Monster? Is that what you call your dog?" She nodded.

"Scout looks like a wolf, and wolves are considered monsters by many people. Need I explain more?" She tried to get around him, but he was faster, moving in front of her every time.

"What exactly is your plan for shelter in this weather anyway? It's snowing and freezing, so little box won't help if that's your plan. I hope it's not, because you're a genius and can figure out something better." She glared at him again.

"If you must know, I'm going to go over to Hope's house." She thought Hope would take her in. As Hope's former second in command of the Energy Amazons when she was Dengen, she hoped that Hope would let her stay, for old times sake, but Tsubasa shook his head.

"Hope isn't here. She's in America with her Aunt Cam and Uncle Denny. She's been there since December 20th. She won't be coming back until the 7th." Lex stopped in her tracks.

"She...isn't...here?" He nodded.

"Even if she was, she not even here. She'd be at Madoka's, but Madoka isn't here either. She's in Koma village with Ginga and his family. Apparently, it's a tradition for someone dating a Hagane to spend the first day of the couple's first New Year down there. Madoka doesn't know that part of that entails shoving them both in a closet and forced to kiss as soon as the clock strikes midnight." She rolled her eyes.

"I do not particularly care about Madoka. She acts much smarter than she really is, but she cannot even analyze a Bey without her computer, whereas I can just by looking. None of that matters right now though. Right now, all I care about is finding proper shelter before this storm gets worse." Tsubasa looked confused.

"What storm?" Suddenly, a strong wind ripped through, and with it came much heavier snow. She glared at him once more.

"That storm. I could feel the barometric pressure change, and knew a storm was coming." He gave her a slightly surprised look.

"You are way too smart for your own good. Come on, I know where you can stay." He grabbed her hand, and she blushed a little before wrenching her hand out of her grasp.

"What are you doing? Can't you simply just show me without grabbing me?" He smirked at her, but more teasing than malevolent.

"I can be pretty smart too. It's getting hard to see now. It'll be easier not to lose you that way. Now come on, it's not far." He grabbed her hand again, bringing on an even stronger blush on her face as he led her towards somewhere. She could barely see where they were going, but Tsubasa seemed to have the eyes of an eagle, seeing through the blizzard, and being able to easily navigate towards their destination.

"I never said yes to this Tsubasa!"

"But you never said no. Plus, I'm sure I can get someone to help you with your dog situation." She gave him a very confused look.

"My dog situation? They'll kill Scout if I come back." He shook his head.

"Not with what I've got planned. Were any of them Bladers?" She nodded.

"I saw five guys with Blading Gear and two girls. The rest were people with guns. There was one with a Spiral EagleUW145WB, and he seemed to be the head honcho." Tsubasa rolled his eyes.

"Of course." He turned to her. "We'll get your dog back, and before 6 AM too." She blushed a little, but did not smile.

"I'm not gonna let you do anything. You'll ruin any chances I have of getting her back, and get her killed." He smiled at her.

"I promise, I won't get your monster killed." Now she rolled her eyes.

"I'm the only one allowed to call her that, got it?" He nodded.

"Alright." They came up on a building. "We're almost there." Lex squinted her eyes, and managed to see where they were.

"The Japanese WBBA Headquarters? Is that where we're going? Why would you bring me there?" He didn't look back, just kept going forward.

"It's the annual New Years Eve Party. Usually, the Director would be in charge, but since he's got his own traditions, he put Hikaru in charge." He felt his arm going back a bit and realized that Lex had stopped. he turned to her and faced her. "What's wrong?"

"Hikaru would never want to see me. I kidnapped her, forced her to battle Naga-sama so that she could not only take Hikaru's strength, but turn her into an Amazon as well, and then grabbed her and threatened to slit her throat if Ginga didn't forfeit the battle with Naga-sama. I think she's likely to call a security force on me to arrest me." He gave her a smile.

"You can't be arrested, you don't exist. Ryusei tried for months to find out who you were. There's absolutely no record of you anywhere at all. You did a good job of erasing yourself from the world. The closet he got was some family called the Cloughs in America, who said they didn't know you when shown your picture." She tried not to show any facial expressions when she asked her question.

"And how did he track that dead end down?" Tsubasa looked up, trying to remember, then remembering it, looking straight forward.

"They kept posting a picture of their daughter as well as put up her missing person file on different databases. She'd be about your age now, she had the same type of dog as you that's the same age, the picture looked a lot like a younger version of you, and the IQ seemed to fit you, but just as soon as it'd pop up, it'd disappear, and Ryusei thought it was you deleting yourself again. But when he showed them your current picture, they said it wasn't you, that you didn't have that look about you. They didn't explain further than that before shoving him out the door and sending him back to Japan." Lex nodded.

"It's understandable. He gave them false hope, and therefore, they didn't want to see him ever again." Tsubasa nodded.

"But the point is, Hikaru can't arrest you." They got closer to the building. Lex sighed.

"I hope you're right." They stopped in front of the building. Tsubasa held the door open for Lex.

"After you." She couldn't help but smile.

"It's good to know that chivalry isn't dead." She walked in. inside looked very much like a traditional New Years Eve party, at least if you're an American. There were decorations with what the year would be at midnight, plus lots of American style snack foods, and a giant punch bowl, on one very long and very large table. There were also a lot of people there, but they didn't pay any attention to either of them. Once Tsubasa closed the door, he walked over to the table and unloaded his bags, which had a bunch of different types of sodas, plus a large tub of sherbet. He took what looked like an ice cream scoop, pulled the lid off the sherbet, and started putting some in the punch. Lex looked around.

"Well this seems pretty...American." Tsubasa didn't glance at her as he organized the bottles of soda that he had brought. Nobody paid him any attention when he was doing that either.

"We wait until the traditional Lunar New Year to celebrate it the traditional Japanese way, but tonight we celebrate the Gregorian Calender New Year. There's a separate party for the Lunar one." Lex nodded in understanding.

"Ah. Where should I put your coat?" She took it off and held it up to show him. He finished setting up the drink and walked over to her.

"Here, I'll deal with it." He took it from her and went somewhere. She didn't really pay attention, just looked at the spread.

"There's a lot of really good food here." Her stomach growled. She looked at the spread. "Maybe a quick bite won't hurt."

"What are you doing here?" Lex didn't even have to turn to see who was speaking. She knew the voice.

"Nice to see you Hikaru." Hikaru was in her usual business wear, holding a clipboard.

"I'd say the same, but I hate to lie. What are you doing here? You don't work here, so you definitely weren't invited." Lex turned to her.

"It's none of your business who brought me here. All you need to know is that there's a snow storm outside, and it's not exactly safe for anyone to be outside." Hikaru noticed the drinks on the table, as well as the sherbet in the punch.

"Tsubasa, huh?" She looked straight at Lex. "Come with me, right now." Lex saw the look Hikaru had on her face and didn't bother trying to avoid it. She followed Hikaru into a small room with only a door. There were no windows, no other exits. Hikaru closed the door and gave Lex a glare. "I don't care if Tsubasa brought you here, you're dangerous. Unlike Hope, you and the other Amazons didn't merge with your other selves. Dengen is still in there, and so is Warrior Power. I won't tolerate them here. You're a danger to everyone here. Warrior Power is the strongest of them, the only one stronger being Hope, but she merged with Naga and Ōhi. You could easily turn into Dengen, and I won't tolerate that. And I won't tolerate you!" Lex grabbed her head and closed her eyes, not wanting to hear it.

"Stop it! Just stop it now!" There was power coming from her, surging around. Hikaru didn't move.

"I don't want you hear, understand me?! I don't want the girl that nearly killed me to be anywhere near this building, or around the people I care about!" Lex's eyes opened, red instead of deep chocolate brown. She let go of her head, and just looked like she was fighting an invisible enemy.

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" Tsubasa ran back, having heard the noises from where he had just been, as well as Lex yelling. Her were eyes closed again, and her hair growing from longer and black with red streaks to shrinking back to it's normal length.

"What's going on in here?" He saw Hikaru. "What did you do? Don't try and lie, you're the only one here!" She shook her head.

"I told her to leave! She doesn't belong here Tsubasa! She's going to put everyone in danger! I'm not gonna stand for that! She can find somewhere else!" Tsubasa had to shout from the noise.

"She doesn't have anywhere else to go! Don't do anything! Don't say anything! In fact, just go away! You'll only make matter worse! I'm going to try and reach Lex!" Before Hikaru could say another word, Tsubasa ran up to Lex and grabbed her hand. She glared at him, here eyes now open and changing from red to brown, like her hair. "You can control this Lex! You aren't Dengen, and you aren't Warrior Power! You're only yourself, and you are stronger than Dengen or Warrior Power! You can win!" Dengen's voice came out. She wrenched her hand out of Tsubasa's grasp.

"Your words won't reach her. I am her strength! Without me, she would never win a battle!" Suddenly, her hair was completely red. "I am her Spirit! Do you know what Lex really is? She's the soft part! She's our weakness!" Tsubasa shook his head.

"She's your compassion! She's your humanity! While she acts like she doesn't care, I can tell she does! She's the part that kept you from killing Hikaru! She's the part that cares enough about her family's safety to delete her existence! She gave up her family, her life, all of her hopes and dreams to protect them from you! You may be her physical strength and her Spirit, but Lex is her own courage! Only someone with great amounts of courage could ever do that! only someone who truly understands love and the greater good could ever do what she did! You two are cowards and fools if you ever thought that you were stronger than her!" Her eyes started turning brown again, and her hair back to normal, but it snapped back to Dengen.

"No, you are the fool! You think that those petty words can save her? Once I take over again, I will gather the other Amazons and we will use our power to regain Naga-sama! We will have our Queen Senshi once again!" Tsubasa shook his head.

"No, because Lex has one thing you don't, either of you! She may not show it, and she may not understand it, but she has love, and that's stronger than anything, even stronger than the bonds between Bladers! You can never beat that!" Dengen laughed.

"She doesn't feel like she has love! She feels like her family hates her now! Hope, her faithful leader, no longer talks to her, and the rest of the Amazons abandoned her as well! The only one left is her poor pathetic dog! What is that, the love of a dog? Nothing at all!" Dengen laughed again. Tsubasa glared at Dengen.

"She's doesn't just have the love of her dog! She does have people who love her! She has people like me!" He didn't think of the words coming out of his mouth, only saying what he felt. "I care about her, and I want _her_, not you! So go away and give Lex back her body!" Dengen's eyes widened.

"No, this can't be! No!" She kept yelling words of protest as Lex tried to take control again.

"Go back to my subconscious you complexion in my mind!"

"I will not go back there!"

"Yeah, well too bad! This is my body! You can't have control of it! I will take control of my own body, understand me?! GET OUT OF MY MIND!" Lex's eyes turned fully brown and her hair shortened back to it's original length. She started to collapse, but Tsubasa caught her.

"Are you okay?" She opened her eyes, looking at him.

"Yeah, I am now." She stood up on her own, without Tsubasa's support. "You know, I had been wondering about something for a long time." He looked a bit curious.

"And what's that?"

"Why I felt sick around you. Why I felt like hurling and fainting and singing and a large amount of other things as well. I didn't understand it, and just took it as me being amazed by your strength. Now, I understand what I was feeling, and it wasn't just respect. What you were talking about, it's all true." Her watch started beeping. She looked at it. "It's midnight." Tsubasa smiled.

"Then what better way to start of the New Year with-" he didn't get to finish. Lex cut him off with a kiss. She had her arms around his neck, and he, while surprised at first, wrapped his arms around her waist. It was intense, to say the least. They broke apart, and Tsubasa smiled. "Now, let's get your dog back."

Needless to say, they were very shocked and helpless when a WBBA raid team came and arrested them.

**Song Of Hope: Wow, that went in a totally different direction from what i had thought it would be. Hikaru's not being a bitch, BTW. She's afraid of Lex because, like I said earlier in the story, Dengen nearly killed Hikaru, and Lex hasn't merged with her other selves. It's only natural she try to get rid of Dengen She only made it worse so that she wouldn't look scared. Well, R&R**


End file.
